Learn how to create a Dreamweaver template from an existing document, use the Assets panel to create a new template, or create a template for Contribute sites.

You can create a template from an existing document such as an HTML, or you can create a template from a new document.

After you create a template, you can insert template regions,
and set template preferences for code color and template region
highlight color.

Note:

You can store additional information about a
template (such as who created it, when it was last changed, or why
you made certain layout decisions) in a Design Notes file for the
template. Documents based on a template do not inherit the template’s
Design Notes.

Note:

Templates in Dreamweaver CC differ from templates in some other Adobe Creative Cloud products in that page sections of Dreamweaver templates are fixed (or uneditable) by default.

Create a template from an existing
document

You can create a template from an existing
document.

Open the document you want to save as a template.

Do one of the following:

Select Insert > Template > Make Template.

In the Common category of the Insert panel, select Templates from the drop-down menu, then select the Make Template option.

Note:

Unless you selected Don’t Show This Dialog Again in the past, you’ll receive a warning that says the document you’re saving has no editable regions. Click OK to save the document as a template, or click Cancel to exit this dialog box without creating a template.

Select a site to save the template in from the Site pop‑up menu, and then enter a unique name for the template in the Save As field.

Create template from existing document

Click Save. Dreamweaver saves the template file in the
site’s Templates folder in the local root folder of the site, with
a .dwt filename extension. If the Templates folder does not already
exist in the site, Dreamweaver automatically creates it when you
save a new template.

Note:

Do not move your templates out of the Templates folder,
or put any non-template files in the Templates folder. Also, do
not move the Templates folder out of your local root folder. Doing
so causes errors in paths in the templates.

Use the Assets panel to create
a new template

In the Assets panel (Window > Assets), select the Templates icon on the left side of the panel.

Click the New Template icon at the bottom of the Assets panel.

A new, untitled template is added to the list of templates
in the Assets panel.

While the template is still selected, enter a name for
the template, then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh).

Dreamweaver creates a blank template
in the Assets panel and in the Templates folder.

About creating templates for Contribute
sites

Using Dreamweaver,
you can create templates to help Adobe® Contribute® users create new pages, to provide a consistent
look and feel for your site, and to enable you to update the layout
of many pages at once.

When you create a template and upload it to the server, it becomes
available to all Contribute users who connect to your site, unless
you’ve set restrictions on template use for certain Contribute roles.
If you have set restrictions on template use, you might need to
add each new template to the list of templates a Contribute user
can use (see Administering Contribute).

Note:

Make sure that the site root folder defined in each Contribute
user’s site definition is the same as the site root folder defined
in your site definition in Dreamweaver. If
a user’s site root folder doesn’t match yours, that user won’t be able
to use templates.

In addition to Dreamweaver templates,
you can create non-Dreamweaver templates
using the Contribute administration tools. A non-Dreamweaver template is an existing page
that Contribute users can use to create new pages; it’s similar
to a Dreamweaver template, except that pages
that are based on it don’t update when you change the template.
Also, non-Dreamweaver templates can’t contain Dreamweaver template elements such as editable, locked,
repeating, and optional regions.

When a Contribute user creates a new document within a site containing Dreamweaver templates, Contribute lists the
available templates (both Dreamweaver and
non-Dreamweaver templates) in the New Page
dialog box.

To include pages that use encodings other than Latin‑1 in your
site, you might need to create templates (either Dreamweaver templates or non-Dreamweaver templates). Contribute users
can edit pages that use any encoding, but when a Contribute user
creates a new blank page, it uses the Latin‑1 encoding. To create
a page that uses a different encoding, a Contribute user can create
a copy of an existing page that uses a different encoding, or can use
a template that uses a different encoding. However, if there are
no pages or templates in the site that use other encodings, then
you must first create a page or a template in Dreamweaver that uses that other encoding.

Create a template for a Contribute site

Select Site > Manage Sites.

Double click the site you want to edit.

In the Site Setup dialog box, select Advanced Settings > Contribute.

If you haven’t already done so, you need to enable Contribute
compatibility.

Select Enable Contribute Compatibility, and then enter
a site root URL.

Click Administer Site In Contribute.

If prompted, enter the administrator password, and then
click OK.

In the Users And Roles category, select a role, and then
click the Edit Role Settings button.

Select the New Pages category, and then add existing
pages to the list under Create A New Page By Copying A Page From
This List.